From: mike 
Newsgroups: uk.legal uk.finance
Subject: VAT not identified
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:19:38 +0100
Bytes: 2001

Earlier this year I changed my electricity supplier to be
ScottishPower 
There were a number of problems with the move over and questions over
what tariff I was on, and I began to have second thoughts.  I said I
wanted to understand exactly what the tariff was, what discounts there
were for dual fuel, paying by DD, and managing an Internet account.
Pre-printed leaflets were patently wrong and I insisted that they sent
me a letter to detail my tariffs.
They did so - very clearly Night Rates, Day rates, Standing Charges,
Discounts - just what I needed in order to understand the pricing
structure.
I put the figures in to a spread sheet and compared with other
published tariffs - I was pleased to see that they were the cheapest
so decided to stay with them.

Checking my bills since April I now find that the figures they
provided in my letter are ex-VAT.  There is no mention of VAT at all
in the letter.  Given that they knew it was a domestic supply - can I
insist that they charge me the quoted rates as being inclusive of VAT.

I thought that the default for domestic goods and services was that
VAT was included in prices unless stated to the contrary.

This also raises the question - why do Electricity and Gas suppliers
quote any prices for domestic customers which are exclusive of VAT?